{ "id": "changpeng-zhao", "title": "Changpeng Zhao", "lang": "en", "source_lang": "en", "summary": "Chinese-born Canadian entrepreneur, Binance co-founder and former chief executive, commonly known as CZ.", "category": "economics", "subcategory": "finance", "type": "person", "aliases": [ "CZ", "Zhao Changpeng", "赵长鹏", "趙長鵬" ], "generated_at": "2026-10-15", "model": "pro/gpt-6.1-sol", "url": "https://aiwiki.page/en/changpeng-zhao/", "translations": { "zh-Hans": { "url": "https://aiwiki.page/zh/changpeng-zhao/", "json": "https://aiwiki.page/zh/changpeng-zhao.json" } }, "sections": [ { "heading": "", "text": "Changpeng Zhao, commonly known as CZ, is a Chinese-born Canadian entrepreneur and software developer best known for co-founding Binance in 2017. Under his leadership, Binance became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. His career connects the development of electronic trading systems with the emergence of global cryptocurrency markets and the regulation of cross-border financial platforms. (investing.com)\n\nRaised in China and Canada, Zhao studied computer science at McGill University before working in financial technology and cryptocurrency businesses. He served as Binance’s chief executive until November 2023, when he resigned and pleaded guilty in the United States to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program. He received a four-month prison sentence in April 2024 and was released that September. President Donald Trump subsequently granted him a full and unconditional pardon, signed on October 21, 2025, and publicly announced on October 23. (assets.bwbx.io)\n\nZhao’s biography encompasses Binance’s founding and international expansion, its place in the cryptocurrency industry, and the separate criminal and civil proceedings involving him and the company. His subsequent activities include founding Giggle Academy, a free online education platform for children. (investing.com)" }, { "heading": "Childhood, migration, and education", "text": "Changpeng Zhao was born in 1977 in Jiangsu province, China. A sentencing memorandum submitted by his lawyers in April 2024 describes his birthplace as a rural village, where his mother taught and his father maintained the electrical network for the village loudspeaker system. Zhao’s later autobiographical account describes both parents as teachers and his father as a university professor who had been sent away from the city. These descriptions concern different stages of the family’s history; the account of his father’s displacement is Zhao’s recollection of family history, rather than an event he remembered witnessing. (assets.bwbx.io)\n\nIn 1989, Zhao moved with his mother and older sister to Vancouver, Canada, joining his father, Shengkai, who was pursuing doctoral studies. The family lived on the University of British Columbia campus. His adolescence consequently took place in a Canadian university community rather than the rural Chinese setting of his childhood. In interviews for a 2023 Fortune profile, Zhao recalled attending an ethnically diverse high school and noticing substantial differences between his family’s finances and those of more affluent classmates. The profile identifies these observations as his memories of school life, not as independently measured descriptions of the students’ circumstances. (finance.yahoo.com)\n\nPaid work formed part of Zhao’s schooling in Vancouver. According to the 2024 defense memorandum, his mother worked in a clothing factory, while his sister became a McDonald’s cashier. Zhao joined his sister at McDonald’s at fourteen and subsequently worked as an amusement-park dishwasher, an overnight gas-station clerk, and a volleyball referee. The memorandum presents these jobs as contributions to household finances while his father continued studying. Zhao also recalled an unusually large family purchase: an IBM-compatible 286 computer costing C$7,000, which his father used for research and to introduce him to programming. (assets.bwbx.io)\n\nAfter completing high school in 1995, Zhao moved to Montreal to attend McGill University. He studied computer science, having initially enrolled in biology, according to his account to Fortune. His academic participation is also documented by a surviving research publication: Inter-layer Learning Towards Emergent Cooperative Behavior, published in 2000, lists Changpeng Zhao alongside Shawn Arseneau, Wei Sun, and Jeremy R. Cooperstock, with an affiliation to McGill’s Centre for Intelligent Machines. The paper investigated simulated soccer players whose learning architecture separated basic skills, individual decisions, and team strategy. It reports testing the resulting agents in a 1999 competition at McGill. (finance.yahoo.com)\n\nAn internship connected with the Tokyo Stock Exchange provided the transition from university study to financial-software employment. Fortune reported that Zhao converted the internship into full-time work in 2000 and did not return to McGill; its profile explicitly distinguished his attendance from graduation. His educational record is therefore described as computer-science study at McGill, rather than the award of a degree. (finance.yahoo.com)" }, { "heading": "Financial-software career and entry into cryptocurrency", "text": "Zhao’s early career involved building software for financial markets, rather than managing investments. In Tokyo, he worked for a technology contractor involved in developing systems for the Tokyo Stock Exchange; Binance’s 2017 white paper described this employment as encompassing both a college internship and his first job after university. His work included order-matching software—the infrastructure used to bring compatible purchase and sale orders together. This was a contractor role associated with exchange technology, not employment as a securities trader or an exchange executive. (securities.io)\n\nHe subsequently moved to New York and worked at Bloomberg Tradebook, where he developed futures-trading software and became head of futures development. Binance’s early account described a four-year tenure; its corporate biography records his departure in 2005. The distinction between trading infrastructure and trading decisions is important here: Tradebook supplied electronic execution services, enabling customers to submit orders and access markets. Bloomberg’s regulatory filings describe its system as supporting automated execution, clearance, and settlement across multiple asset classes. Zhao’s documented responsibility concerned the software platform and its development team, rather than the investment performance of customers using it. (securities.io)\n\nIn 2005, Zhao relocated to Shanghai and co-founded Fusion Systems. The company developed high-frequency trading systems for brokers, with an emphasis on low latency: reducing delays in the processing and transmission of trading instructions. Its role was to supply financial technology, rather than to operate a public securities exchange. Binance’s 2017 white paper credited Zhao with arranging and deploying systems for clients including Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, and Deutsche Bank. He remained at Fusion Systems until 2013, when he left to work full-time in cryptocurrency-related businesses. (binance.com)\n\nZhao joined Blockchain.info, subsequently renamed Blockchain.com, in 2013 as head of development, also described in Binance’s early biography as head of technology. He worked with a team that included founder Ben Reeves, Nicolas Cary, Roger Ver, and Anthony Antonopoulos. The business provided wallet and blockchain-information services, distinct from the securities-trading infrastructure of his previous employment. Its developer tools exposed transaction and block information, charts, and statistics through application programming interfaces, allowing other software to retrieve and use that data. Contemporary reporting on his departure identified these storage and analysis tools as part of his team’s work. (finance.yahoo.com)\n\nBy June 2014, Zhao had moved to OKCoin as chief technology officer. Unlike Blockchain.info’s wallet and information services, OKCoin operated a cryptocurrency-trading venue. His responsibilities included managing its technical team; Binance’s 2017 account also credited him with leading international marketing and coordinating a proof-of-reserves exercise with Stefan Thomas. These were responsibilities at OKCoin, separate from his earlier development role at Blockchain.info. His subsequent founding of Binance in 2017 followed these successive positions in conventional financial software, cryptocurrency services, and exchange operations. (bitcoinx.com)" }, { "heading": "Establishment of Binance in 2017", "text": "Zhao co-founded Binance in 2017 and became its chief executive, initially developing the exchange with a team based in Shanghai. The project’s contemporary white paper identified June 14, 2017, as its starting date and named Zhao as CEO. It proposed a cryptocurrency-only trading venue, rather than an exchange accepting national currencies such as dollars or renminbi. Zhao’s April 2024 sentencing memorandum described the original operation as a startup of approximately thirty people offering crypto-to-crypto spot trading: the exchange of one cryptocurrency for another. These organizational beginnings preceded Binance’s public trading launch in July 2017. (allcryptowhitepapers.com)\n\nThe launch was financed through an initial coin offering (ICO) of BNB, then called Binance Coin. The white paper specified an initial supply of 200 million tokens: 100 million for the public offering, 80 million for the founding team, and 20 million for angel investors. Buyers could participate using bitcoin or ether. A July 8, 2017, company announcement stated that the offering’s 100 million BNB had been issued, including 20 million through btc9.com, 20 million through RenRenICO, and 60 million through Binance’s own website. Binance reported raising approximately $15 million. These were sales of digital tokens, not a conventional issuance of company shares; purchasing BNB did not itself make a buyer a Binance shareholder. The initial tokens used Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard rather than a Binance-operated blockchain. (allcryptowhitepapers.com)\n\nBinance’s platform supplied the trading infrastructure between customers. Its matching engine brought together compatible buy and sell orders, while the underlying cryptocurrency networks remained distinct from the exchange. Matching an order on Binance was therefore not the same operation as validating a transfer on a cryptocurrency network. The white paper emphasized matching-engine performance as a competitive feature, claiming a capacity of 1.4 million orders per second; this was a stated technical capacity, not a measurement of completed trades or blockchain transactions. Its initial business model depended on facilitating exchanges between customers and collecting service fees, rather than creating the underlying bitcoin or ether being traded. (allcryptowhitepapers.com)\n\nBNB connected the financing mechanism to the exchange’s fee model. On August 24, 2017, Binance announced that it would begin charging trading fees at midnight on August 25, Beijing time. The stated rate was 0.1%, with a 50% discount for customers choosing to pay fees in BNB. This gave the token an immediate platform use and reduced the effective charge to 0.05% for eligible payments. Trading activity consequently mattered both as a measure of the exchange’s scale and as the basis for fee revenue. (binance.com)\n\nGrowth was rapid during the remaining months of 2017. Reuters subsequently reported that Binance became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange within six months of its establishment, placing that emergence around the turn of 2017–2018. The ranking concerned trading volume—the value of cryptocurrency changing hands—not company revenue, customer deposits, or the number of registered accounts. It describes Binance’s early competitive position during that historical period, rather than establishing an unchanging ranking. (investing.com)" }, { "heading": "International expansion and organizational structure", "text": "Binance’s expansion beyond China involved changes in operating locations rather than a single, continuous transfer of a conventional corporate headquarters. In its March 2023 response to United States senators, the company stated that its founding team launched the exchange while Zhao was living in Shanghai in July 2017, subsequently relocated to Tokyo, and then adopted a geographically distributed workforce without one principal place of business. Binance announced that it was establishing operations in Malta in March 2018. These operational descriptions did not establish its place of incorporation: United States criminal-case documents identified Binance Holdings Limited as a Cayman Islands–registered entity that held employment contracts for certain personnel operating Binance.com. Nor did the Maltese presence establish regulatory authorization; on February 21, 2020, the Malta Financial Services Authority stated that Binance was not authorized by it to operate in the cryptocurrency sector. (binance.com)\n\nZhao’s public description of the organization subsequently shifted toward regional headquarters. In an October 7, 2021 interview with Reuters, he acknowledged Binance’s earlier claim to have no headquarters and said that it was establishing several around the world, with Ireland included in those plans. Reuters reported that three Binance companies had been registered in Ireland the previous month; those registrations were distinct from confirmation that a headquarters had opened. By March 2023, Binance described Paris and Dubai as its two major regional hubs and reported more than 8,000 full-time personnel worldwide. Thus, during Zhao’s leadership, corporate registration, offices and regional hubs, and public statements about headquarters referred to different aspects of the organization. (euronews.com)\n\nThe international Binance exchange, Binance.com, was also distinct from Binance.US, which launched in September 2019 for customers in the United States. SEC proceedings identified BAM Trading Services Inc. as the operator of Binance.US and BAM Management US Holdings Inc. as a related corporate defendant. Binance stated in 2023 that the two platforms were separately constituted, ultimately owned by Zhao, and that Binance.US was not a subsidiary of Binance. Separate incorporation, however, did not resolve questions of operational control: the SEC’s June 2023 complaint alleged that Zhao and Binance retained substantial involvement in the American business despite representations of independence. Those assertions were allegations, not adjudicated findings; the SEC action was dismissed with prejudice in May 2025. The platforms’ intended customer markets were likewise distinct, although actual access by American customers to Binance.com became a separate compliance issue. (binance.com)\n\nExpansion also broadened the company beyond exchange trading. Binance’s 2018 review recorded the acquisition of Trust Wallet in July, the launch of Binance Research in November, and the formal launch of Binance Academy in December with more than 500 educational articles and videos in 15 languages. Binance Labs operated as the company’s venture-investment and incubation arm: its first ten-week incubation program concluded in December 2018 with eight participating teams, each receiving $500,000 in seed funding alongside mentoring and industry contacts. These were Binance initiatives during Zhao’s tenure, rather than separate personal ventures. The company also initiated development of a public blockchain, then called Binance Chain, extending its activities from operating a trading platform to supporting blockchain infrastructure. (binance.com)\n\nDated measurements illustrate the resulting scale without making the exchange’s ranking timeless. On March 28, 2023, Reuters reported, citing CryptoCompare, that Binance accounted for approximately 60% of global cryptocurrency trading volume; the same report placed the value of trades processed by Binance.com during 2022 above $22 trillion. These figures measured trading activity, not company revenue. User totals were another measure: Binance reported more than 170 million registered users in its December 2023 year-end disclosure, issued shortly after Zhao’s departure as chief executive. Registered users did not measure active traders, and neither account totals nor the gross value of transactions represented the fees retained by the business. (investing.com)" }, { "heading": "Executive responsibilities and compliance decisions", "text": "Zhao exercised day-to-day control over Binance’s operations as chief executive, according to the statement of facts in his November 2023 plea agreement. His admissions connected that authority to specific compliance decisions: he understood that serving substantial numbers of customers in the United States required Binance to register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program. He also acknowledged that customer-identification requirements would cause some customers to leave or be rejected, interfering with the company’s pursuit of market share. These were admissions about executive decisions and knowledge, rather than descriptions of his personality or management style. (justice.gov)\n\nThe applicable obligations arose under the Bank Secrecy Act and its implementing regulations. Binance’s corporate statement of facts established that, although located outside the United States, it qualified as a money transmitter because it served substantial numbers of U.S. customers. It therefore had to register with FinCEN as a money services business and implement an effective anti-money-laundering program. The required controls included verifying customer identities, maintaining records, monitoring transactions, and identifying and reporting suspicious activity. Registration and customer verification were consequently separate obligations: collecting identification alone would not satisfy the broader requirements for transaction monitoring and reporting. (justice.gov)\n\nFor much of Binance’s early operation, its entry-level accounts did not require meaningful identity verification. Zhao’s agreement described “Level 1” or “Tier 1” accounts that, from 2017 until approximately August 2021, could be opened with an email address and password, without a name, residential address, citizenship information, or government identification. These accounts permitted unlimited cryptocurrency deposits and trading, subject to a daily withdrawal limit of two bitcoin. (justice.gov) In August 2021, Binance introduced mandatory know-your-customer identification requirements for all users. Implementation was not immediate: some users who had not supplied the required information continued trading until May 2022. The company also admitted that it had failed to monitor transactions systematically and had never filed a suspicious activity report with FinCEN during the period described in the proceedings. (justice.gov)\n\nRestrictions on U.S. access likewise differed from the treatment of commercially important accounts. In 2019, Binance announced that it would block U.S. customers and launched the separate Binance.US exchange, but the admitted facts documented efforts to retain U.S.-based high-volume customers on Binance.com. Executives, including Zhao, developed a plan to contact these “VIP” customers, help them establish accounts for offshore entities, and transfer their holdings to those accounts. Employees also encouraged U.S. VIPs to supply information suggesting that they were outside the United States. (justice.gov) The corporate statement explained the economic importance of these customers: high-volume traders supplied liquidity, making assets available for other customers to buy and sell, and received discounted transaction fees and other benefits. (justice.gov)\n\nThe access-control failures also affected sanctions compliance. Binance admitted knowing that its order-matching system would bring U.S. customers into transactions with customers in comprehensively sanctioned jurisdictions unless preventive controls were implemented. Nevertheless, it did not block such trading with users in Iran. Between January 2018 and May 2022, this failure caused more than $898 million in trades between U.S. users and users ordinarily resident in Iran. These corporate admissions concerned the operation of the platform and its controls; they were distinct from Zhao’s individual admission that he caused Binance to fail to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program. (justice.gov)" }, { "heading": "Binance, Zhao, and the FTX crisis", "text": "Binance’s relationship with FTX began as an investment partnership. On December 20, 2019, Binance announced an equity investment in the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange and a separate long-term position in its exchange token, FTT. The companies also proposed cooperation on trading liquidity and institutional products. Binance exited its equity investment in 2021. In his subsequent account of that exit, Zhao said Binance had received approximately $2.1 billion in combined BUSD and FTT. That figure represented the combined proceeds, not the value of Binance’s remaining FTT holdings in November 2022; selling those tokens was also distinct from selling an ownership stake in FTX. (binance.com)\n\nOn November 6, 2022, Zhao announced that Binance intended to liquidate its remaining FTT, citing recent revelations. His announcement followed CoinDesk’s November 2 report on a leaked balance sheet belonging to Alameda Research, the trading firm closely associated with FTX and its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried. The report identified substantial FTT holdings among Alameda’s assets, raising concerns about the financial relationship between the exchange, its token, and the trading firm. Zhao said Binance would seek to limit the market impact and expected the disposal to take several months. Alameda chief executive Caroline Ellison publicly offered to purchase Binance’s FTT at $22 per token. These announcements documented an intended sale and a purchase offer, rather than establishing that Binance had already completed its liquidation. (lse.co.uk)\n\nCustomer withdrawals accelerated as confidence in FTX deteriorated. In a November 8 message to employees reviewed by Reuters, Bankman-Fried reported approximately $6 billion in net withdrawals over the preceding 72 hours and said withdrawals from FTX.com were effectively paused. That day, Zhao announced that Binance had signed a nonbinding letter of intent to acquire FTX.com and help address its liquidity shortage. The proposal concerned FTX’s international exchange, not FTX.US; the American operations of Binance and FTX were excluded. It remained subject to due diligence, and Zhao explicitly retained the ability to withdraw. Bankman-Fried’s staff message likewise acknowledged that important transaction details had not been settled. No acquisition or transfer of control was completed. (lse.co.uk)\n\nOn November 9, Binance abandoned the proposed transaction. Its public explanation cited its corporate due diligence, reports concerning mishandled customer funds, and reports of United States agency investigations. These were Binance’s stated grounds for withdrawing, not findings issued by a court at that time. The company said the problems exceeded its ability to provide assistance. On November 11, FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and Bankman-Fried resigned as chief executive. Zhao’s documented role in this sequence consisted principally of announcing Binance’s intended FTT sale, negotiating the conditional rescue proposal, and communicating Binance’s withdrawal. The underlying financial problems were broader: evidence subsequently established in Bankman-Fried’s criminal case showed that FTX customer funds had been diverted to Alameda, including to repay its lenders. The withdrawal crisis and failed rescue therefore occurred against an existing misuse of customer assets, rather than constituting a complete explanation of FTX’s failure. (sec.gov)" }, { "heading": "United States civil regulatory proceedings", "text": "On March 27, 2023, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against Zhao, Binance Holdings Limited, Binance Holdings (IE) Limited, Binance (Services) Holdings Limited, and former chief compliance officer Samuel Lim. The complaint alleged violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations arising from Binance’s provision of commodity derivatives trading to U.S. customers beginning in July 2019. It alleged that Binance operated without required registrations, including as a futures commission merchant and a derivatives-trading venue, and failed to meet associated customer-identification and supervisory obligations. Zhao was charged on the basis of his control over Binance and alleged participation in regulatory evasion; Lim was charged with aiding and abetting violations and willful evasion. The complaint also alleged that commercially valuable U.S. customers received assistance in circumventing access restrictions. These were allegations at the filing stage. (cftc.gov)\n\nOn December 18, 2023, the CFTC announced that the court had entered a consent order formalizing a settlement first announced on November 21. The order found violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations and imposed a $150 million civil monetary penalty on Zhao personally. Separately, Binance was required to disgorge $1.35 billion in improperly obtained transaction fees and pay a $1.35 billion civil monetary penalty. The order found that Binance, at Zhao’s direction, solicited U.S. customers and enabled access through arrangements including prime-broker subaccounts outside its customer-identification procedures. It permanently enjoined further violations and required certifications concerning compliance controls, the removal of accounts that failed those controls, and governance arrangements including independent directors, a compliance committee, and an audit committee. (cftc.gov)\n\nThe CFTC settlement formed part of coordinated resolutions involving the Department of Justice, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and the Office of Foreign Assets Control. The CFTC order recognized credits for certain payments Binance made under FinCEN’s civil penalty assessment. Consequently, the agencies’ headline amounts were not wholly cumulative and cannot simply be added together as separate payments. Zhao’s personal CFTC penalty was a civil obligation, distinct from the sanctions imposed in his federal criminal case. (cftc.gov)\n\nA separate securities-law action began on June 5, 2023, when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Zhao, Binance Holdings Limited, BAM Trading Services Inc., and BAM Management US Holdings Inc. Its 13 charges included allegations that Binance-related entities operated unregistered securities exchanges, broker-dealers, and clearing agencies, and conducted unregistered securities offerings involving products such as BNB, BUSD, lending products, and a staking service. The SEC alleged that Zhao bore control-person liability for specified registration violations. It also alleged that Zhao and Binance retained undisclosed control over Binance.US and facilitated continued Binance.com access for high-value U.S. customers. These claims belonged to the SEC complaint, rather than constituting findings established by the CFTC order. (sec.gov)\n\nOn May 29, 2025, the SEC and all four defendants filed a joint stipulation dismissing that action with prejudice, ending the litigation without preserving the SEC’s ability to refile the same claims. The SEC described its decision as an exercise of discretion based on policy considerations, rather than announcing a determination vindicating the defendants on the merits. It expressly stated that dismissal did not necessarily reflect its position in other litigation or proceedings. This disposition concerned the SEC securities-law action; it was separate from the CFTC consent order and the federal criminal proceedings. (sec.gov)" }, { "heading": "Criminal case, resignation, imprisonment, and pardon", "text": "On November 21, 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). His plea admitted that he willfully caused Binance to fail to implement and maintain the required program. The admitted conduct included operating without appropriate customer-identification procedures and adequate transaction monitoring. His individual offense concerned the failure to establish legally required safeguards; it was distinct from a conviction for personally laundering particular criminal proceeds. The plea agreement’s statement of facts described conduct beginning at least as early as August 2017 and continuing through at least October 2022. (justice.gov)\n\nBinance Holdings Limited entered separate corporate guilty pleas concerning conspiracy to violate the BSA and fail to register as a money-transmitting business, failure to register, and violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Its approximately $4.3 billion criminal resolution comprised about $2.51 billion in forfeiture and a $1.81 billion criminal fine. These were obligations of the company, not Zhao’s personal criminal fine. The Justice Department also provided approximately $1.8 billion in credits toward coordinated regulatory resolutions, so the announced corporate amounts were not all independently additive. (justice.gov)\n\nZhao resigned as Binance’s chief executive as part of the resolution. Separately, Binance agreed to retain an independent compliance monitor for three years and to remediate and strengthen its anti-money-laundering and sanctions-compliance programs. The monitorship was a corporate oversight requirement, distinct from Zhao’s resignation and subsequent personal sentence. It addressed the company’s compliance systems rather than constituting supervision of Zhao as an individual defendant. (justice.gov)\n\nOn April 30, 2024, Judge Richard A. Jones sentenced Zhao to four months’ imprisonment and a $50 million criminal fine. The prison term was below the three years sought by prosecutors; defense lawyers had requested a sentence without imprisonment. The criminal fine was separate from the $150 million civil monetary penalty imposed against Zhao in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission proceeding. Zhao was released from custody in California on September 27, 2024, after serving the prison sentence. (justice.gov)\n\nPresident Donald Trump signed a full and unconditional presidential pardon for Zhao on October 21, 2025; the pardon was publicly announced on October 23. Issued under Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution, the clemency instrument specifically identified United States v. Zhao, case number 23CR00179RAJ-001. The Justice Department’s clemency register identified the covered offense as failure to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program and recorded the four-month sentence and $50 million fine. The instrument named Zhao individually and covered his federal criminal case, rather than granting clemency to Binance or disposing of the separate civil regulatory proceedings. (justice.gov)" }, { "heading": "Educational and investment activities after Binance leadership", "text": "On March 19, 2024, Zhao announced Giggle Academy, an educational project intended to provide free basic education through online, game-based learning. His initial announcement described an ambition to cover material roughly equivalent to grades 1–12, with adaptive learning and no revenue-generating model. This was a proposed educational scope, rather than an announcement that a complete school curriculum was already available. The initiative followed his departure from Binance’s chief-executive position and represented a separate undertaking from the cryptocurrency exchange. (crypto.news)\n\nGiggle Academy’s own description identifies Zhao as its founder and presents its mission as providing free educational content to children worldwide. Its documented offerings concentrate on early English-language learning and literacy: courses for children aged two to eight, an internally developed phonics programme covering letters, speech sounds and rhymes, and a vocabulary system covering 400 core English words. The organization reports more than 100 mini-games and over 300 teaching videos, alongside songs and speaking practice. These figures describe the platform’s content inventory, not independently measured improvements in children’s learning. (giggleacademy.com)\n\nThe platform also reports more than 1,000 picture books, including vocabulary and phonics books and classic titles, with support for over 30 languages. Its website lists applications for Apple and Android devices as launched products. It separately identifies mathematics, science, chemistry, physics and additional language courses, including Chinese and Spanish, as areas for future expansion. Thus, the availability of multilingual reading materials should be distinguished from the proposed development of complete courses in additional languages and subjects. (giggleacademy.com)\n\nZhao’s investment activities acquired a separate organizational identity on January 23, 2025, when Binance Labs announced its rebranding as YZi Labs. The announcement described the change as reflecting independence from the Binance brand and an expanded investment mandate: blockchain-related Web3 ventures would remain a focus, while artificial intelligence and biotechnology would become additional target sectors. Zhao’s documented role involved advising on investment strategy and mentoring startup founders, rather than resuming operational leadership of the Binance exchange. Ella Zhang, a former head of Binance Labs, returned to lead the investment organization. (binance.com)\n\nThe rebranding announcement also distinguished investment selection from support for businesses already in the portfolio. YZi Labs said existing portfolio companies and partnerships would continue to receive support, including through the BNB Chain Most Valuable Builder programme. It proposed reviving in-person incubation through a 12-week residency, combining founder mentorship, collaboration and practical business development. These were the investment organization’s announced arrangements in January 2025; Zhao’s participation was described in terms of coaching founders and guiding investments, with Zhang responsible for leading the firm’s next phase. (binance.com)" } ], "links": [ "china", "canada", "computer-science", "united-states", "vancouver", "montreal", "financial-market", "tokyo", "new-york-city", "shanghai", "liquidity", "education", "literacy" ], "sources": [ { "title": "Sentencing Memorandum on Behalf of Defendant Changpeng Zhao", "url": "https://assets.bwbx.io/documents/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/rvJ2rk_6NP5c/v0" }, { "title": "Changpeng Zhao", "url": "https://www.czlife.app/" }, { "title": "The making of Binance’s CZ: An exclusive look at the forces that shaped crypto’s most powerful founder", "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/news/making-binance-cz-exclusive-look-100000042.html" }, { "title": "Binance Exchange White Paper", "url": "https://www.securities.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Binance-Coin.pdf" }, { "title": "A propos", "url": "https://www.binance.com/fr/about" }, { "title": "Bloomberg Tradebook LLC", "url": "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/vprr/1404/14045411.pdf" }, { "title": "Executive exodus from Blockchain.com started in 2014 with Binance CEO", "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/news/executive-exodus-blockchain-com-started-112711959.html" }, { "title": "Blockchain Developer APIs", "url": "https://www.blockchain.com/api/blockchain-api" }, { "title": "Report: Former Blockchain executive joins OKCoin", "url": "https://bitcoinx.com/2014/06/12/report-former-blockchain-executive-joins-okcoin/" }, { "title": "Binance Exchange: Whitepaper V1.1", "url": "https://www.allcryptowhitepapers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Binance.pdf" }, { "title": "Issuing of Binance BNB Token", "url": "https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/detail/115000574131" }, { "title": "SEC v. Binance Holdings Limited: Memorandum of Law", "url": "https://www.sec.gov/file/brief-pr2023-103" }, { "title": "What Is BNB (BNB)?", "url": "https://www.binance.com/en/academy/articles/what-is-bnb" }, { "title": "Binance and CEO Plead Guilty to Federal Charges in $4B Resolution", "url": "https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/binance-and-ceo-plead-guilty-federal-charges-4b-resolution" }, { "title": "Binance Will Charge Trading Fees From August 25", "url": "https://www.binance.com/ru-KZ/support/announcement/detail/115001258291" }, { "title": "Binance Shares Its Recent Response to US Senators Inquiry", "url": "https://www.binance.com/en/blog/ecosystem/1968152125579137703" }, { "title": "Binance 2018 Recap", "url": "https://www.binance.com/en/blog/all/286445971261435904" }, { "title": "Binance.Information.pdf", "url": "https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/media/1326911/dl" }, { "title": "SEC Files 13 Charges Against Binance Entities and Founder Changpeng Zhao", "url": "https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2023-101-sec-files-13-charges-against-binance-entities-founder-changpeng-zhao" }, { "title": "Binance Holdings Limited; BAM Trading Services Inc.; BAM Management US Holdings Inc.; Changpeng Zhao", "url": "https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-26316" }, { "title": "Binance Labs Launches Eight Blockchain Projects Out of Stealth", "url": "https://www.binance.com/en/blog/all/280981678497193984" }, { "title": "From Our CEO: 2023, the Year of Embracing Change While Remaining Committed to Users", "url": "https://www.binance.com/en/blog/from-our-ceo/1976950881342473554" }, { "title": "United States v. Changpeng Zhao — Plea Agreement", "url": "https://www.justice.gov/media/1327936/dl?inline=" }, { "title": "United States v. Binance Holdings Limited — Plea Agreement and Attachments", "url": "https://www.justice.gov/media/1327926/dl?inline=" }, { "title": "Binance Announces Strategic Investment in Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange FTX", "url": "https://www.binance.com/en/blog/all/414610870200725504" }, { "title": "SEC complaint against Samuel Bankman-Fried", "url": "https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/complaints/2022/comp-pr2022-219.pdf" }, { "title": "Binance plans to buy FTX's non-US operations in latest crypto bailout", "url": "https://gulfnews.com/amp/story/business%2Fmarkets%2Fbinance-plans-to-buy-ftxs-non-us-operations-in-latest-crypto-bailout-1.1667926897318" }, { "title": "Samuel Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years for His Orchestration of Multiple Fraudulent Schemes", "url": "https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/samuel-bankman-fried-sentenced-25-years-his-orchestration-multiple-fraudulent-schemes" }, { "title": "SEC Files 13 Charges Against Binance Entities and Founder Changpeng Zhao", "url": "https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2023-101" }, { "title": "Joint Stipulation of Dismissal and Releases", "url": "https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/litreleases/2025/stipulation-dismissal-26316.pdf" }, { "title": "United States v. Changpeng Zhao", "url": "https://www.justice.gov/criminal/case/united-states-v-changpeng-zhao" }, { "title": "Clemency Grants by President Donald J. Trump (2025-Present)", "url": "https://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemency-grants-president-donald-j-trump-2025-present" }, { "title": "2025-10-21 Pardon CHANGPENG ZHAO", "url": "https://www.justice.gov/pardon/media/1416576/dl" }, { "title": "Post-Binance life: Changpeng Zhao is turning to education with a new project", "url": "https://crypto.news/post-binance-life-changpeng-zhao-is-turning-to-education-with-a-new-project/" }, { "title": "Introduction to Giggle Academy - About Us - Giggle Academy", "url": "https://giggleacademy.com/about-us" }, { "title": "Binance Labs Rebrands to YZi Labs, Expands Focus to Web3, AI, and Biotech", "url": "https://www.binance.com/en/square/post/01-23-2025-binance-labs-rebrands-to-yzi-labs-expands-focus-to-web3-ai-and-biotech-19328005674682" } ], "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" }